Electoral Conflict and Security

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems' (IFES) approach to electoral conflict prevention, mitigation and resolution is rooted in international instruments and standards, which protect the right of all people to participate in the electoral process in a peaceful and safe environment. Reframing electoral security as human-centered, in line with IFES' mission to support citizens' right to participate in free and fair elections, allows for a more holistic approach to security that covers all phases and activities of the electoral process and adheres to international standards and norms governing elections. Drawing on 30 years of experience working in over 145 countries (many experiencing post-conflict transitions), IFES has developed a number of conflict-sensitive electoral security approaches and tools including:

People Against Violence in Elections (PAVE), a series of trainings designed to help participants identify root causes of electoral violence, develop skills to foster dialogue and cooperation on nonpartisan projects between opposing groups and diffuse tension where possible, promote social harmony and a nonviolent political culture, become “peace ambassadors” who prevent, detect, deter and/or mitigate electoral violence;

PAVE Youth, an off-shoot of the PAVE program targeting youth as voters, civic/voter educators, and peace ambassadors;

Enabling a Peaceful Environment to Administer Credible Elections (ePeace), an electoral security trainings for election officials and law enforcement officers, encouraging collaboration and shared responsibility for electoral security between all stakeholders and upholding human-rights principles in electoral security; this includes a how-to-establish a Joint Electoral Security Operations Center module.

IFES has a vision of a world in which strong democratic institutions include the voices of all citizens, protect them from violence that seeks to silence them, and support them in seeking justice. We...

On November 14, 2018, Vasu Mohan, IFES' regional director for Asia-Pacific and technical lead on elections, conflict and security, provided testimony to the House of Representatives’ Tom Lantos Human...

Earlier this year, IFES research in Zimbabwe found that women engaging in elections as candidates, voters and journalists were experiencing devastating sexual extortion, physical violence, harassment...

On November 6, 2018, IFES gathered more than 130 participants for “Elections Under Threat? A Global Comparative Analysis of Cybersecurity of Elections,” a discussion about the state of cybersecurity...

As Afghanistan goes to the polls on October 20, Afghan women, 417 of whom are running for office, face widespread discrimination. IFES, as part of the “Mitigating Electoral Violence Against Women in...